Commentary - Deuteronomy 6:1-3

Bird's-eye view

Here, at the edge of the Promised Land, Moses is delivering his final sermons to the people of Israel. This is not some dry legal recital. This is covenantal preaching of the highest order. Having just reiterated the Ten Commandments in the previous chapter, Moses now drives home the central point of it all. The law is not a disconnected list of rules designed to make life difficult. No, the law is a gift, a comprehensive guide for life in the land God is giving them. The whole package, commandment, statutes, judgments, is designed for one purpose: to cultivate a lasting, multi-generational fear of Yahweh that results in life, blessing, and multiplication. This is the preface to the Shema, the great confession of Israel. Before they are told to love God, they are told what the life of loving God looks like. It is a life of careful, joyful obedience rooted in a holy fear.

The logic is straightforward and potent. God commands, He teaches, so that you might do. And the doing is not for God's benefit, as though He needed our help, but for ours. The goal is our good, the good of our children, and our grandchildren. This is covenant succession in its most basic form. God is establishing a people for Himself, and He is giving them the tools to remain His people, generation after generation. Obedience is the pathway to blessing, not because we earn the blessing, but because God has graciously attached the blessing to the obedience. The land flowing with milk and honey is the goal, but the way to enjoy that land is to walk in the ways of the God who gives it.

Outline

Context In Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy is structured as a series of farewell addresses from Moses to the generation of Israelites poised to enter Canaan. This passage, Deuteronomy 6:1-3, serves as a crucial bridge. It follows the repetition of the Decalogue (Deuteronomy 5) and introduces the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4), which is the heart of the law. Moses is not just giving laws; he is shaping a national culture, a covenantal way of life. He is explaining the why behind the what. The Ten Words are the foundation, and now he is building the house. This section sets the stage by establishing the motive for obedience: the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, and the blessing of God, which is the fruit of that wisdom. It’s a preamble that frames all the specific laws that follow not as arbitrary hoops to jump through, but as the very architecture of a blessed society.

Verse by Verse Commentary

Deuteronomy 6:1

Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which Yahweh your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do it in the land where you are going over to possess it,

Moses begins by bundling all of God's laws together. "The commandment, the statutes and the judgments." This is not three separate categories so much as it is a way of saying "the whole kit and caboodle." The "commandment" in the singular likely refers to the central principle of the law, total loyalty and love for Yahweh. The "statutes" are the specific, engraved ordinances, and the "judgments" are the case laws that apply the statutes to daily life. It’s a comprehensive package. This law is not Moses's good idea; it is what "Yahweh your God has commanded me to teach you." Moses is the mediator, but God is the source. The authority is absolute. And the purpose is intensely practical. It is to be done. Faith is not a sentiment. It is obedience. And this obedience has a specific location: "in the land." God's law is not for abstract contemplation in the wilderness; it is for concrete application in the real world He is giving them.

Deuteronomy 6:2

so that you and your son and your grandson might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.

Here is the ultimate goal. The law is a tool for discipleship, and the first lesson is the fear of God. This is not the cowering terror of a slave before a tyrant. This is the awe, reverence, and trembling delight of a creature before his glorious Creator and Redeemer. It is the beginning of knowledge. And notice the horizon: "you and your son and your grandson." God's covenant plan is generational. He is not just saving individuals; He is building a holy nation that persists through time. Fathers are to live in such a way that they teach their sons, who teach their sons, to fear the Lord. This fear is expressed through keeping His commands, and this is a lifelong project, "all the days of your life." The result? "That your days may be prolonged." This is not a simplistic promise that every obedient person will live to be a hundred. It is a covenantal promise of stability, security, and fruitfulness in the land. Disobedience leads to chaos and exile. Obedience, rooted in the fear of God, leads to a long and healthy life for the nation.

Deuteronomy 6:3

O Israel, you shall listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Moses concludes this introduction with a direct, urgent appeal. "Listen, Israel!" This is the famous word, Shema. It means more than just letting sound waves enter your ears. It means to hear with an intention to obey. "Listen and be careful to do it." The doing must be diligent, not haphazard. And again, the motivation is their own good. "That it may be well with you." God is not a cosmic killjoy; His commands are for our flourishing. When a people walks in His ways, things go well. Society is ordered, just, and prosperous. And not only will it be well, but "you may multiply greatly." This echoes the original creation mandate and the promise to Abraham. God wants His people to be fruitful and fill the land. This entire enterprise is grounded in God's faithfulness. He is keeping the promise He made to "the God of your fathers." The "land flowing with milk and honey" is not a carrot dangled to trick them into obedience. It is the gracious inheritance promised beforehand, and this law is the instruction manual for how to live in it and enjoy it to the fullest.

Application

We are not ancient Israelites on the plains of Moab, but the principles here are perennial. The law of God, fulfilled and articulated in Christ, is still our guide. We are not saved by keeping it, but because we are saved, we delight to walk in its precepts. The moral law of God is a reflection of His character, and so it is the shape of love.

The first application for us is to recover a robust fear of the Lord. Our culture is allergic to fear, and the modern church has often followed suit, presenting a God who is little more than a celestial teddy bear. But Scripture is clear: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and perfecting holiness is done in the fear of God. This is not a spirit of bondage, but a spirit of adoption that cries Abba, Father, with reverence and awe. It is the glad and clean fear that comes from knowing we are forgiven.

Second, we must take seriously the generational nature of the covenant. Christian parents have a solemn duty to teach their children God's commands, not just with words, but with a life of careful obedience. We are to believe God's promises for our children and raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, fully expecting God to be faithful to His promise to be a God to us and to our children after us. The family table is where the instruction of the church is unpacked and applied.

Finally, we must see the unbreakable link between obedience and blessing. This is not the prosperity gospel, which treats God like a vending machine. This is covenantal reality. When we walk in God's ways, it goes well for us. When we sow righteousness, we reap blessing. When we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these other things are added to us. God has promised us a better country, a heavenly one, and His law teaches us how to live as citizens of that kingdom even now.